04.27.07
Posted in News and Announcements at 3:59 by lnxwalt
In an effort to make our public face and outreach activities easier to manage, we are currently changing some of our tools.
Current Situation
Official Blogs include this one (using WordPress software), and several others hosted using B2Evolution software. The B2Evo software, even though it has the same ancestor as WordPress, is a mess to work with. Many times we have only part of the administration pages–for days at a time–or it is full of PHP error messages (or even worse, “HTTP 500: Internal Server Error” messages).
Changes
We are moving our B2Evo blogs to Pivot and Nucleus. In either case, we have to configure the software and set up themes and widgets, plus import any content that is coming from the old B2Evo blogs.
We also intend to get deeper into covering local events–we live here and we want to ensure that things work better for local residents–and businesses.
Times have been slow at my main employer, but business has been slow to pick up apart from them as well. I will be looking for a temporary position so I can pay the bills while we weather this time period. If you are aware of Linux/BSD-related positions in the Victor Valley/Barstow, Palmdale/Lancaster, or Inland Empire (San Bernardino/Ontario/Redlands/Riverside/Rancho Cucamonga) areas, please forward the information to me: huckstech [at] webconnectconsulting [dot] com.
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04.24.07
Posted in Legal Issues, News and Announcements at 5:58 by lnxwalt
If you have done many Web searches lately, you have seen dozens or hundreds of spam blogs that pop up during your searches. Recently, I was searching on a blog search site for information on a particular topic and had to wade through about five pages of “splogs” (spam blogs) before I found the first results. They do this because they are looking for “easy money.”
You know, the same thing that is offered on those late-night infomercials: send us a few hundred dollars and you can make $5,000 per day sitting around in your underwear. No more getting up in the morning, showering and shaving, wearing the accepted clothing for your industry, and getting on the freeway. No more boss telling you to stop lollygagging. Become an overnight millionaire on the Internet!
If you are not reading this article through your feed reader or on our site, you are probably seeing stolen content. If so, please click on the “Goooogle” link and report the site you see this content on. I believe it violates the terms of Google Adsense to completely duplicate existing content.
The thing is, this is not anything new. One of the reasons that e-mail and IM are getting clogged with spam and “spim” is because companies see a way to send out millions of advertisements at almost zero marginal cost. If even 1/10 of 1% of the targeted people respond with clicks (or worse yet, purchases), the spammers make money.
Before that, it was junk mail to postal mail boxes. Send out a few thousand advertisements and if you get a 1% or 2% response, you’re making money. Especially since “bulk” mailers get frequent-customer discounts from the Postal Service. Isn’t it nice that I pay full price when I send real mail, some of which goes to subsidize the people that send me junk mail that I have to throw out each day.
We get the scams where someone is trying to sneak money out of their country. These things are not new. There were other ways that they tried to get you to hand over cash in exchange for an expected jackpot.
We get the chain letter that promises wealth if we forward and poverty if we do not. But again, these things are not new. Except back in the pre-networked world, these things were typed up and duplicated and you were actually supposed to send cash to one of the previous recipients.
Some time back, I had sent for some information from one of those wholesalers that have the “start a business plan.” I already knew what I wanted to do, but I was willing to look at other options. After a wait that was so long I had nearly forgotten I had sent for it, I got a packet a couple of weeks ago. The packet was long on “sign up NOW and start making the money you’ve dreamed of making” and short on details like what you’d be doing in order to make the money. Then today, I got a telephone call from a salesman, a very rude and pushy salesman, a very rude and pushy salesman who let me know that I wasted his time and money by sending for information without being convinced to purchase their plan. After that, they could have said, “we’ll send you all the gold in Ft. Knox and you don’t have to pay us anything,” I would still have nothing to do with them. So then I checked on Rip-Off Reports and there they were, with a long page full of complaints and some vehement defenders who could easily have been employees.
As I said, there is nothing new there. I first became aware of this kind of behavior–something for nothing–while reading Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Later, I read about FBI and Secret Service agents and the founding of those agencies, which was heavy on various something-for-nothing scams that have been pulled over the years. (As a child, I probably read more in two weeks than I currently read in a year.)
I recommend that you check out White Collar Fraud before investing in any kind of business.
Aside from that, do not contribute to the continued existence of the something-for-nothing fraudsters. You do this by refusing to buy from spam that you receive and by refusing to join the “we’ll make your rich overnight” plans. If their product or service really made people rich, do you think they would be sharing it? I mean, come on. One of the richest guys in the world regularly gets in trouble because his company tries to put its competitors out of business. So there is no way to convince me that someone who had a fool-proof, easy-to-follow cash-generation system would sell it to outsiders for a few hundred dollars each. It would be locked up under guard somewhere in the inventor’s underground vault.
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04.17.07
Posted in Industry News, News and Announcements, Small Business at 22:31 by lnxwalt
Jonathan Scwartz, CEO/President of Sun Microsystems, has some sage advice about your brand. Your brand is a lot more than you think it is. This is the best advice on the topic that I have ever seen.
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04.05.07
Posted in News and Announcements at 5:20 by lnxwalt
A fire near Hesperia this weekend burned over 1,400 acres and caused the evacuation of about 200 homes.
A brush fire in the Las Flores Ranch area was estimated at 1,400 acres with five percent containment at 9:45 p.m. on Saturday. Despite that, officials believe it will be at full containment by 6 p.m. Sunday.
Mandatory evacuations were made for roughly 200 homes and 30 ranches, said San Bernardino County Fire Department spokeswoman Tracey Martinez. Everyone west of Arrowhead Lake Road from Hesperia Lakes south to the spillway is to evacuate. At 6 p.m. evacuations were ordered for everything south of Ranchero between Farmdale on the west and I Avenue on the east is also to evacuate, Martinez said.
Martinez said that at 10 p.m. Saturday the evacuation order will be lifted for those in the Ranchero Road area because headway has been made on the northern-most flank of the fire.
The early start to the fires caught many people by surprise.
First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt added that because this fire came so early in the year, several agencies were caught off guard.
“It’s not fire season yet, so we don’t have our standing army ready to fight,” Mitzelfelt said.
Mitzelfelt said that a fire information line has been established by the county that residents can call for updates. The number is (909) 355-8800.
Another fire on Friday burned about 150 acres in the Hollywood hills, causing fears that it could lead to a repeat of the Malibu fire of a few years ago.
If you have not yet done so, contact your local fire department for the local standards on fire prevention. Wherever you are, you should make sure that you have picked up and disposed of flamable debris and fluids on your property. You should clear the area around your home of weeds and brush for a distance of at least thirty feet (I believe short, well-watered grass is acceptable). In fact, clear off the tumbleweeds and other dry weeds all over your property.
Some areas offer burn permits for weeds. Check your local fire department for more information. If you must dispose of weeds in the trash, be sure to use the designated container. Your city is evaluated on how well its waste is separated, with fines possible for non-compliance. Suffice it to say that they may get testy if you have a large volume of mis-classified waste.
Be sure to follow all of the above as well for your business. Remember, if a widespread & destructive fire begins on your property and it is shown that you did not do your part to reduce the danger, you could be assessed fines. Preparation for undesirable events is a prudent course which could reduce your insurance premiums as well as reduce the amount of damage your business suffers.
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03.29.07
Posted in FLOSS, News and Announcements at 20:37 by lnxwalt
As Reverend Ted points out, the market for desktop operating systems contains more than just Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X. The question is how to make this apparent to the world around us.
Microsoft, of course, has staked out a position as the stuffy businessperson. Apple has staked out a position as the cool media-oriented fun guy. The three YouTube videos on Ted’s post are a takeoff on Apple’s tremendously popular “I’m a PC, I’m a Mac” series of commercials, with an added twist: Linux joins the discussion.
Take a look.
technorati tags:Linux, I’m+a+Mac
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